The Implementation of Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique

(S-EFT) to Reduce Self-discomfort: A Study among College Students

Salami, Fatmawati

Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Islam Negeri Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Keywords: College Students, Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique, Self-Discomfort

Abstract: Studying at the university gives some challenging experiences for college students which aims to increase

their level of academic quality. Reading some books, submitting assignments, finishing some projects,

doing oral presentations, taking final exams, and writing a thesis are numerous requirements that must be

completed before they are awarded a degree. There are students who are able to cope with those challenges

easily, but some of them have to struggle due to some serious cases they have, such as: communication

anxiety, family related issue, lack of self-confident, bullying, etc. Those problems may increase the level of

self-discomfort which then affect their academic performance. In order to help those students in facing their

problem, Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (S-EFT) was applied. S-EFT is performed to ensure the

energy flows smoothly in the body by tapping certain points of acupuncture. When the energy is balance,

the biochemical system in the body will be influenced as well. While this process occurred, the therapist

also reads the affirmation sentence to help the client release the stress and decrease self-discomfort. In this

condition, usually, the brain wave is at alpha, so the affirmations will be accepted by the unconscious mind

and level of sincerity (ikhlaṣ) could be achieved. Subjective Unit of Discomfort Scale (SUDS) was carried

out during the period for evaluating the progress of the therapy.

1 INTRODUCTION

According to statistical data, more than 50%

university students suffer from stress and anxiety

(Saleh, Camart, & Como, 2017), and the number of

students dropping out of university due to mental

health problems is increasing (Bruffaerts et al.,

2018). The sources of stress among students are

various –for example, coursework deadlines

(Spector & Infante, 2019), exams (Brady, Hard, &

Gross, 2018), and balancing study with other

commitments (Daniels, Sheahan, & MacNeela,

2019). Going to university can also mean living

away from home for the first time (Yan & Pei,

2018), less sleep (Becker et al., 2018), poor eating

habits (Abraham, Noriega, & Shin, 2018), and

money worries (Sharp & Theiler, 2018). It is clear

that the majority of university students experience

high levels of stress during their degree, which may

then contribute to the rising level of self-discomfort

(Wayment & Cavolo, 2019), and of course affect

their academic performance later on.

Thus, in order to help the students suffering from

the negative events during their university life,

several psychological first aids are trying to be

implemented. One of the easiest therapy that

commonly used within the scope of education is

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) (Purwoko &

Arianto, 2018). EFT actually comes from the basic

concept of psychotherapy developed by Gary Craig

(Church, Stapleton, Yang, & Gallo, 2018). EFT is

the meridian energy therapy that combines

psychology and simple acupuncture technique, it

works directly to stimulate body meridian system by

tapping the acupuncture points (Church et al., 2018).

Interestingly, EFT has been known as a technique

that helps people overcome with numerous

problems. The several previous studies mentioned

that EFT was effective in dealing with students who

experience smoking addiction problems

(Sriwahyuni, Merianti, & Amelia, 2018), reducing

anxiety during examination (Patterson, 2016),

increasing performance in oral presentation (Boath,

Stewart, & Carryer, 2012), and reducing stress due

to thesis preparation (Rogers & Sears, 2015).

However, the presence of spiritual aspect in

human being cannot be rejected. As clearly

mentioned in QS. Al-Hijr verse 28-29 that Allah

Salami, . and Fatmawati, .

The Implementation of Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (S-EFT) to Reduce Self-discomfort: A Study among College Students.

DOI: 10.5220/0009438901370146

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 137-146

ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0

137

SWT creates human from 3 substances, including

physical, psychological, and spiritual.

ﻦ

ﻣ

ﻝﺎ

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ﺮ

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ﻧ

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ﺔ

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ﻼ

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ﻠ

ﻟ

ﻚ

ﱡ

ﺑ

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ﻝﺎ

ﻗ

ﺫ

ﺇ

ﻭ

ﻥﻮ

ﻨ

ﺴ

ﱠ

ﻣ

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ﻤ

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ﻦﻳ

ﺪ

ﺟﺎ

ﺳ

ﻪ

ﻟ ﺍﻮ

ﻌ

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ﺣﻭ

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Translations: “And [mention, O Muhammad],

when your Lord said to the angels, "I will create a

human being out of clay from an altered black mud.

And when I have proportioned him and breathed

into him of My [created] soul, then fall down to him

in prostration.” (QS. Al-Hijr: 28-29).

Nevertheless, it has been broadly acknowledged

that most of the psychotherapy practices, including

EFT developed in western countries which separated

spiritual attribute from human personality (Skinner,

2019). Therefore, this study aimed to bridge this

gap. Additionally, as one of the Islamic universities,

the existence of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh is

hoped to give a contribution on Islamic

development, including increasing students’ well-

being through psychological treatment.

The adding of spiritual phase on EFT essentially

has been discovered by Zainuddin (2006), which

then renamed the EFT into S-EFT or Spiritual

Emotional Freedom Technique. During the therapy,

clients focus on the problem that will be released by

saying the affirmation sentence (du’a), accepting

their current adverse life condition, and asking

assistance from Allah SWT. This process has been

found as a factor that can decrease the level of

someone’s self-discomfort (Zainuddin, 2006). It is

believed that when physical and psychological

aspects are balanced, the brain wave is at alpha, so

the affirmations will be accepted by the unconscious

mind and level of sincerity (ikhlaṣ) could be

achieved. So, at the end, the stress which causes

self-discomfort will reduce or even sometimes

totally disappear.

As a newly established psychological

intervention technique, the implementation of S-EFT

on education is still limited because most of the

previous studies utilized S-EFT for smoking

cessation (Yugistyowati & Rahmawati, (2018);

Nurjanah, 2019). Therefore, this research aimed to

apply S-EFT in reducing self-discomfort which

triggered from various problems, including

communication anxiety, family related issue, lack of

self-confident, bullying, etc. among college students

at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

There were 8 college students who participated in

this study. They came voluntarily to meet a certified

S-EFT therapist with several different problems,

including communication anxiety, family related

issue, lack of self-confident, bullying, smoking, and

pornographic addiction. A Subjective Unit of

Discomfort Scale (SUDS) was filled by each

participant during the intervention period. This is a

scale of 0 to 10 for measuring

the subjective intensity of disturbance or distress

currently experienced by an individual. The SUDS

also used as a benchmark to evaluate the progress of

the intervention. The detail of S-EFT procedure will

be explained on the table below.

Table 1: S-EFT Procedure.

No Stage Description

1 Preparation

Phase

a. Before therapy process, a client

should have some fresh water

to avoid him/her from

dehydration. The client also put

off all metal accessories from

the body. He /she also put away

the mobile phone to be free

from electromagnetic

disturbance.

b. Then the client decides what

problem will be cured. What

negative emotion that would be

released. If there are some

emotions involved in the case,

the client can note them on the

paper. So they can be released

in one time. These emotions

also will be put in the

affirmation (du’a).

c. After that, a client asked to

determine the Subject Unit of

Discomfort Scale (SUDS). The

scale is between 0 and 10. Zero

means no problem at all and ten

is very high tension. For

example, the client is afraid to

see the supervisor. The

therapist can ask at what level

the afraid is. Maybe 8 or 10.

Whatever the number is said by

the client, the therapist put the

circle around that figure. That

will be the starting point before

therapy until known at what

ure is the afraid reduce.

2 The Set-Up

Phase

a. The set-up aims to make the

energy flows in the body

smoothly by neutralizing

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psychological reversal or

negative thinking and feeling or

limiting belief. In this phase,

the therapist should create the

affirmation or du’a to be

mentioned during the set-up

process. For example, “Oh

Allah, although I fell very

nervous to face this oral exam, I

deeply and completely accept

myself, and with your help, I

decide to release all this

negative feeling right now for

the sake of my goodness and

my future. I sincerely and rely

on You for my quietness and

calm to take the oral exam,

Amȋn”.

b. In this process, while repeating

the affirmation three times, the

client taps at the Karate Chop

or press the Sore Spot or

Tender Spot counterclockwise

three rounds by using two or

three fingers. The affirmation

should be understood by the

client, so the therapist can use

any languages based on

demand. This is important to

get the deep feeling of the client

while listening to this

affirmation. This will influence

the client’s unconscious mind

where the level of sincerity is.

As a result, the negative feeling

will reduce and the positive one

comes.

3 The

Sequence

At this phase, the therapist taps

certain points seven or nine times

each point by using point finger

and middle finger. The tapping is

medium, not too hard and not too

soft, but it can be felt by the

client. The tapping points are the

Major Energy Meridians, such as:

crown (on the top of the head),

eye brow (the start of the

eyebrow), side of the eye, under

the eye, under the nose, chin,

collar bone, under the arm, below

nipple (liver point), inside of

hand, outside of hand, thumb,

index finger, middle finger, ring

finger, baby finger, karate chop,

and gamut spot

4 Nine

Gamut

Procedure

While tapping Gamut Spot, there

are nine procedures should be

done.

a. Close your eyes

. O

our e

c. Look to the bottom right

d. Look to the bottom left

e. Turn your eyes clockwise

f. Turn the eyes counterclockwise

g. Pray in a certain rhythm. In the

original EFT use humming like

Happy Birthday song rhythm

h. Count 1,2,3,4 and 5

i. Pray or hum once again

Source: Zainuddin (2006)

For more information about the tapping points,

see the picture below.

Source: (Church et al., 2018).

Figure 1: Tapping Points of S-EFT.

3 RESULT

3.1 Case 1: Afraid of Supervisor

A student with initial SY who studied at the Arabic

Department was in the last semester of his study. He

was afraid of the co-supervisor. When he thought to

see the co-supervisor, his heart beats rapidly, his

hands like tremor, and his face became pale. He

came to the therapist telling all his problems. Then

the therapist asked him to take a glass of fresh water,

drink it a little bit, then take a deep breath. As the

procedure of SEFT therapy, the therapist asked him

to put off his watch, put away his mobile phone, and

sit on the chair relax. First, the therapist asked him

the level of SUDS, then he said the level was 9.

After this preparation phase, the therapist explained

to him that he should follow whatever the therapist

said and did. Then the set- up process of therapy was

started. While pressing the sore spot, we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. Oh Allah, although I am

afraid to see the co-supervisor, I am sincere, I

surrender to You, I deeply and completely accept

myself, I decide to be brave now with your blessing

for the sake of my better life, Amiin).

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Then the therapist asked him to take a deep

breath and drink a little fresh water. After waiting

for 20 seconds, the therapist asked him to imagine

that he wants to see the co-supervisor and feel the

level of afraid. He said that the level of SUDS

declined to 5. Then we started the second round with

the same process of the first time. After the second

round, he said that the level of SUDS became 2. At

last, we did the third round of therapy with the same

process as the first and the second one. Then the

therapist asked him to take three deep breathes. The

therapist asked about his fear to see the co-

supervisor and he said that he is not afraid anymore.

For this student, the therapist did not need to

continue to the sequence phase because his problem

has been coped in the set-up phase. Because he was

brave to see the co-supervisor, he could finish his

thesis in that semester. The changes of self-

discomfort for SY can be tracked on the figure

below.

Figure 2: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 1.

3.2 Case 2: Deep Sadness Because Left

Behind by the Peer in the Project

There was a student with initial T felt very sad

because she was often not being involved in group

work. Other members of the groups made an

appointment to sit together to discuss the project that

should be submitted to the lecturer. This student was

a member of the group, but she did not get the

information about the time and the place where they

discuss the project. She felt that the members of the

group did not like her. So, she was very sad. The

therapist tried to help her to heal her sadness by

using SEFT. The preparation phase was the same as

the previous case, but the set-up was different. First,

the therapist asked the level of SUDS. The answer

was 7. Then we started the therapy. The therapist

asked her to take a deep breath and exhale it gently.

After that, she drank a little fresh water. We

continued by pressing sore spot and prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I am

very sad because being not involved in the

teamwork, I am sincere, I surrender to You, I deeply

and completely accept myself, I decide to be happy

now with your blessing, for the sake of my better life.

Ȃmȋn).

After one round of set-up, the sadness reduce to

level 2. Then we continue second round with the

same process and the result is 0. For this student, we

only need two rounds of set-up, so the sequence step

was not performed. After the therapy, she could call

her friends in the group with a positive feeling and

they did the project together until finish. The

changes of self-discomfort for T can be tracked on

the figure below.

Figure 3: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 2.

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

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3.3 Case 3: Bullied by Friends

The student initial AY felt not secure because often

to get bullied by her friends. This student is introvert

but she is good in almost all subjects. Sometimes,

her friend said that she is stingy and does not want to

share her knowledge with her friends. Another

friend called her "Ms. Know-it-all". She felt

annoyed by her friends' labeling. Then we decided to

solve her problem by using EFT. The preparation

phase is the same as the former case. The therapist

asked the SUDS level, the answered was 8. After

that, the therapist asked her to take a deep breath,

exhale it gently and drink a little fresh water. Then

we started the set-up phase by pressing the source

spot and prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I feel

uncomfortable and very annoyed because being

bullied by my friends, I am sincere, I surrender to

You, I deeply and completely accept myself, I decide

to be free from this negative feeling, now, with your

blessing, for the sake of my better life. Ȃmȋn)

After the first round, the SUDS level became 4,

then we continue the second round and reduce to 2.

After that, we continue to the third round, the level

of SUDS became 0. The changes of self-discomfort

for AY can be tracked on the figure below.

Figure 4: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 3.

3.4 Case 4: Lack of Self-Confident to

do a Presentation

A student with initial RA wanted to present his

proposal for his thesis, but he was not brave to do so.

He thought that he could not speak in front of the

lecturers as the examiners. He came to the therapist

asked for help how to overcome his problem. After

the preparation phase, the therapist asked him to take

a deep breath, exhale gently and drink a little fresh

water. Then the therapist asked the level of SUDS

and he said it was 7. While pressing the sore spot,

we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I am

not confident to do a presentation, I am sincere, I

am surrender to You, I deeply and completely accept

myself. I decide to release this feeling now with the

blessing from You, for the sake of my better future,

Ȃmȋn)

After the first round of therapy, the SUDS level

became 2. Then we continue with the second round

like the first step. After the second round, the SUDS

became 1. We continue the third round with the

same step and the level of SUDS became 0. The

changes of self-discomfort for RA can be tracked on

the figure below.

Figure 5: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 4.

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

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141

3.5 Case 5: Nervous Before the Oral

Exam

Some students feel very nervous before taking the

final oral exam. Usually, they feel this when one of

the examiner members is the lecturer who is well-

known among them as a "killer" one. When this

happened to one of them like RP, she came to see

the therapist to ask for help. After the preparation

phase, the therapist asked her to take a deep breath,

exhale gently and drink a little fresh water. Then the

therapist asked the level of SUDS and she said it

was 8. While pressing the sore spot, we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I feel

nervous before the oral exam, I am sincere, I am

surrender to You, I deeply and completely accept

myself. I decide to stop my nervous now with the

blessing from You, for the sake of my better life,

Ȃmȋn)

Then the SUDS reduced to 3. When the process

of first-round set-up, she got into tears because she

was very impressed with her prayer. Then we

continue the second round like the first round and

the SUDS level became 0. So we only needed two

rounds for this client and we did not need to

continue with sequence. Finally, she took the oral

exam with a positive feeling, answered all questions,

and got a good result. The changes of self-

discomfort for RP can be tracked on the figure

below.

Figure 6: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 5.

3.6 Case 6: Want to Quit Study After

the Death of the father and Other

After the Parents Divorce

A student with an initial KG did not want to finish

his study because his parents want to divorce. He

thought that finishing study is useless and working

to earn money is better. He was also very sad

because the father always gets angry with his

mother. He felt pity for his mother. When the first

time he came to see the therapist, we dealt with the

sadness first. After the preparation phase, the

therapist asked him to take a deep breath, exhale

gently and drink a little fresh water. Then the

therapist asked the level of SUDS and he said it was

9. We decided to heal the sadness first, then we dealt

with the motivation to finish the study. While

pressing the sore spot, we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I feel

very sad because my father always gets angry with

my mother, I am sincere, I am surrender to You, I

deeply and completely accept myself. I decide to

release this sadness now with the blessing from You,

for the sake of my better life, Ȃmȋn)

After the first round of therapy, the therapist

asked him the SUDS level and the answer was 5.

Then we continued with the second round like the

first step. After the second round, the SUDS became

2. We continue again the third round with the same

step and the level of SUDS became 0. For this client,

the sequence step was not performed.

After therapy, he felt happy and could forgive the

father and continue with writing the proposal for his

thesis. After he presented his proposal, got the

supervising letter, he started writing a thesis until

chapter 3. When he finished collecting the data,

another problem happened in his life, the divorce of

his parents. Then he decided not to continue his

study and no motivation at all to finish his thesis.

The therapist called him and treated him to have the

motivation to finish his study. After the treatment,

he decided to continue writing his thesis and then

took the final oral exam. He finished his study in

that semester. The changes of self-discomfort for

KG can be tracked on the figure below.

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

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Figure 7: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 6.

3.7 Case 7: Smoking

A student with initial AD felt that he should stop

smoking because he could not afford to spend a lot

of money on smoking. He consumes cigarette 9

boxes a day. He was very eager to stop smoking, but

he did not know how to. His friend took him to the

therapist to help him in dealing with this problem.

The therapist asked him how long he has been

smoking. The answered was surprising. He started

smoking when he was in secondary school. Then we

decided to do the EFT therapy. First, the therapist

asked him to smoke as a pre-test. At the pre-test, the

therapist asked him at what level the smoke is

convenient for him. He said at 9. Then the therapist

asked him to take a deep breath, exhale it gently, and

drink a little fresh water. We continued with set-up

phase. By pressing sore spot, we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I

am a smoker, I am sincere, I am surrender to You, I

deeply and completely accept myself. I decide to stop

smoking now with the blessing from You, for the

sake of my future, Ȃmȋn)

After one round of healing, the SUDS level reduced

to 5. Then the therapist treated him for the second

round with the same process. After the second

round, the SUDS level reduced to 3. The therapist

continued the third round, the SUDS level reduced

to 1. For this case, the therapist continued to

sequence phase because the SUDS did not reduce to

0. By tapping all EFT points until gamut procedure

one round, the SUDS level became 0. Then the

therapist asked him to smoke again as the post-test

after treatment. When he smoked, he felt dizzy,

headache, and vomiting. He said that the smoke is

harmful to his body. He does not smoke anymore

until now after one and a half year of therapy. He

used to ask the therapist: “What should I do if I

smoke again?” The therapist said: “Just tap by

yourself all the tapping points, then you’ll get the

same result”. The changes of self-discomfort for AD

can be tracked on the figure below.

Figure 8: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 7.

3.8 Case 8: Pornographic Addiction

A student with an initial ZK came to the therapist

and told her that he has been addicted to

pornography since he was at the secondary Islamic

boarding school. He told the therapist that he could

watch a blue film on Sunday for 4 hours even more

and sometimes forgot to have lunch. He knew that it

was not good for him and he did not know how to

stop it. His supervisor asked him to see the therapist

to ask for help. After the preparation phase, the

therapist asked him to take a deep breath, exhaled

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

1 1

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

The Implementation of Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (S-EFT) to Reduce Self-discomfort: A Study among College Students

143

gently and drank a little fresh water. Then the

therapist asked the level of SUDS and he said it was

10. While pressing the sore spot, we prayed:

(Bismillȃhirrahmȃnirrahȋm. O Allah, although I

am addicted to pornography, I am sincere, I am

surrender to You, I deeply and completely accept

myself. I decide to stop this bad behavior now with

the blessing from You, for the sake of my better

future, Ȃmȋn)

After one round of healing, the SUDS level reduced

to 8. Then the therapist treated him for the second

round with the same process. After the second

round, the SUDS level reduced to 6. The therapist

continued the third round, the SUDS level reduces to

4. Then we continued to the sequence by tapping all

the tapping points and did the gamut procedure.

After one round of sequence, the SUDS level

became 0. The therapist asked him to imagine that

there is an interesting pornography film if he wants

to watch it. He said: "No, I'm not interested anymore

to watch that film”. Finally, the therapist asked him

to report his progress after one week, two weeks,

and one month. After one month, the therapist

received the call from him by telling that he did not

watch any pornography film anymore. The changes

of self-discomfort for ZK can be tracked on the

figure below.

Figure 9: Level of Self-Discomfort for Participant 8.

4 DISCUSSION

Studying at the university gives some challenging

experiences for college students which aims to

increase their level of academic quality. Reading

some books, submitting assignments, finishing some

projects, doing oral presentations, taking final

exams, and writing a thesis are numerous

requirements that must be completed before they are

awarded a degree. There are students who are able to

cope with those challenges easily, but some of them

have to struggle due to some serious cases they

have. Those problems may increase the level of self-

discomfort which then affect their academic

performance.

The S-EFT was performed as a psychological

treatment to reduce self-discomfort among college

students at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. Based on

the explanation above, it has been found that S-EFT

was a powerful technique in reducing self-

discomfort which resulted from various adverse life

events, involving communication anxiety, family

related issue, lack of self-confident, bullying,

smoking, and pornographic addiction. All

participants reported declining level of SUDS until

0, meaning no self-discomfort was discovered.

Below is the graphic showing the SUDS score for

each participant.

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

SUDS Score

S-EFT Phase

Participant 1 Participant 2

Participant 3 Participant 4

Participant 5 Participant 6

Participant 7 Participant 8

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From the graphic shown above, it clearly

demonstrated that all the participants started

decreasing their self-discomfort after first round of

set up phase. This indicated that S-EFT gave an

impact on each participant in improving their self-

healing ability –which resulted on declining level of

self-discomfort. This finding was relevant with

previous study conducted by Patterson (2016) which

stated that S-EFT is effective for reducing stress and

anxiety. The result also signified that the process of

using S-EFT is similar for different problems, only

the affirmations were altered based on the certain

cases. The affirmation sentences have been found to

be a core fragment in S-EFT. It implied that spiritual

aspect coupled with EFT supported mental health

needs. Spiritual energy obtained from prayer became

an effective medical treatment for them who

underwent psychological problem. These were

relevant with study performed by Rosyanti et al.

(2018) which mentioned that spiritual gives people

the strength to face problems because they believe

God helps them. This faith will then stimulate brain

performance system where unconscious mind

accepts the affirmations, so level of sincerity (ikhlaṣ)

can be achieved

Although this research contributed to some

advantages, it also had some limitations. First, the

subjective measure used was only SUDS, thus, other

domains of behavior change could not be traced.

Besides, as the participants came voluntarily to meet

an S-EFT therapist, the measurement of follow-up

was difficult to be performed. Not only that, as self-

discomfort became a single variable measured in this

study, so the result will be less comprehensive.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The S-EFT is the meridian energy therapy that

combines spiritual, psychology, and simple

acupuncture technique. It works directly to stimulate

body meridian system by tapping the acupuncture

points. During the therapy, clients focus on the

problem that will be released by saying the

affirmation sentence, accepting their current

condition, and asking Allah for help –which then

may reduce their self-discomfort. It is believed that

when physical and psychological aspects are

balanced, the level of the stress will reduce, or even

sometimes totally disappear. In this study, S-EFT

was found to be an effective psychological treatment

to help college student at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda

Aceh decreasing their level of self-discomfort which

caused by several problems, including

communication anxiety, family related issue, lack of

self-confident, bullying, smoking, and pornographic

addiction. At the termination process, they reported

declining score of SUDS until 0, meaning no self-

discomfort was discovered.

6 RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings from this study give significant

contribution to the benefit of S-EFT in education.

However, based on the limitations mentioned above,

there are some points highlighted as the

recommendations for further research. First, as one

of the non-pharmacological interventions, S-EFT

needs to be combined with other techniques of

psychological treatment in order to achieve longer

effect. With the aim of attaining more

comprehensive result, the addition of other variables

and subjective measures need to be considered as

well, because SUDS is not a diagnostic assessment

scale but only a scale for assessing actual clinical

description. Furthermore, as the subjects participated

in this study were voluntarily, it was difficult to

track the follow-up improvement of each participant,

therefore, the experimental research design will be

helpful to be implemented to determine the changes

of the behavior on each phase.

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